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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

It's the annual Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories! I've participated the past three years (2009, 2010, and 2011),
and rather than simply re-post, I'm going to link to the older posts,
and - when applicable - post about something else that's somewhat
related.

The prompt for today is: December 5 – Outdoor DecorationsDid people in your neighborhood decorate with lights? Did some people
really go “all out” when decorating? Any stories involving your
ancestors and decorations?

As noted in previous years, I grew up with subtle and understated outdoor decorations, and have continued that with my own home. My town of Granbury, Texas, tends to go all out. This year they acquired another piece of property, the Langdon Center near the historic courthouse square downtown, which used to belong to my employer. Now the parks department has yet another canvas on which to work its electrical light art:

The City of Granbury has greatly enlarged the back patio of the historic A. P. Gordon House

1 comment:

My mother loved decorating her front door for Christmas. It ran the gamut of wreaths, bows, colored paper in the 3 panels but one year she outdid herself. Loving the arts and her home, she found a silouette picture of the Virgin Mary holding the infant, Jesus. She decided to enlarge it, and outlined it on white contact paper. This was in the 60's. She wrapped the front door in red wrapping paper (it was shielded from the elements), and cut out the contact paper outline of Mary. It was 5 feet tall. She then removed the backing to the contact paper and mounted it to the red paper door. After placing a spot light in the yard on the door it made a grand illusion for all to see. As luck would have it, someone from a Home and Garden magazine happened into the neighborhood and took a photo of it. She never made the magazine but they provided us with a photo of it. What an amazing woman she was. What a memory for me. Anyone that has ever worked with contact paper knows she was a patient woman she was. I wish I could find that old photo....maybe some day